Loss of Moral Language

Has the sexual revolution caused us to lose our moral language? I was posed that question by a friend recently in a discussion and it caused me to think about the loss of moral language in our current culture. When I consider the current debate about marriage in Canada - particularly as it now relates to polygamous unions - I think the answer has to be yes. We have removed from the marriage debate the moral language that would have been so common to that discussion prior to the 60s and so we now have no grounds on which to challenge polygamous unions - "If they are relationships between consenting adults, who are we to judge them? Shouldn't they be just as esteemed by the state as a relationship between one man and one woman?"

Ian Hunter wrote a fine article on this dilemma in The National Post on Friday, Feb 13th. One particular comment that struck me was his statement: "A society can live for a time on the accumulated moral surplus of prior generations: like financial bankruptcy, moral bankruptcy is a gradual process". Our society is facing the moral bankruptcy we have created around marriage. Chipping away at the notions of fidelity, generosity, service, openness to life that should form the foundation of married life we have a bankrupt notion of marriage which serves no one well - not the men or women who are seeking to enter into it nor the children that rely on it to form the bedrock of their personal formation.